With the recent retirement of Red Wings goaltender Dominik Hasek, it creates a large vaccum between the pipes in Detroit. I mean, Manny Legace ain't a starter. So, it seems that Curtis Joseph is likely being courted by the Wings (or will be once he's officially a free agent on July 1st). That leaves the Leafs without a number one goaltender. So, Byron Dafoe may sign with the Leafs, leaving Boston without a clear #1 goalie...which may see them spend money on a free agent goalie rather than on Bill Guerin...who hopefully will end up in Calgary, but almost definately won't because Flames GM Craig Button said "Nah-uh" on Global Sports last night.

I heard one guy make an interesting comment last night. Say Detroit offers Joseph 9M per for 3 years and the Rangers offer >10M per and Toronto 9M per. It will be interesting to see what Joseph does...

Always remember the line... "It's not about the money", and then see what happens.

Freeway - don't forget to throw Mike Richter and the NYR into that mix of dominoes. Slats is supposed to talk to Richter's agent today but we shall see what happens. Richter has said that he wants to win and whereas he won't take a little less from the NYR because of Slats' public non-negotiating stance he might take less from Detroit or Toronto. What happens in the next few days with Richter will have a big effect on the early movement in the FA marketplace.

i've always thought cujo was a bit overrated and i will be disappointed if the wings spend $9 million/year on him. i'd rather see them spend the money on guerin or a defenseman.

as for the b's, they screwed themselves, like they do every year. there is absolutely no justification for the money they wasted on lapointe...they overpaid o'donnell, but he was very solid for them. i read somewhere that they are confident in john grahame being their #1 goalie, so maybe they won't be in the market for a goaltender after all.

Looking at TSN.ca's Free Agent stuff, it seems that this is likely to happen:

-Hasek retires [already happened]-Detroit signs Curtis Joseph [with all the hubub, we're forgetting that he could've and should've been signed by the Leafs months ago]-Toronto signs Byron Dafoe [Boston has a bunch of goalies in their system, and they need more scoring punch and defensive help than they do Dafoe]-Boston signs Mike Richter [Richter wants to play for a winner, and Boston was one of the best teams last year...Richter's grace-under-fire in the playoffs will help greatly]-Rangers sign a back-up for Dan Blackburn, who'll be their #1 goalie next year

Of the four available goalies, I'm hoping that the Leafs (of course) resign Cujo. Unfortunately, it looks like that stubborn fool Pat Quinn has already dropped the ball on this one. Ergo, the next best thing is Dafoe. I'd much rather get him than the old folks (Belfour and Richter).

There are plenty of good free agents this year, so let's hope that the Leafs can get some of the likes of Bill Guerin and fewer Robert Reichels.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Cujo stay w/ the Leafs. Wings won't pay him what he's asking (9 mil is more than Yzerman makes); they'll just sign Belfour instead. Other than Detroit, where would Cujo go? The Rangers aren't going to win anything. Bruins seem to be set in goal now. I can't think of any other contending teams that are both looking for a top line goalie AND willing to make Joseph the highest paid goaltender out there. Especially considering that he came in 10th place for the Vezina and has never really won anything.

The Wings look to be more of a good fit for Byron Dafoe than Joseph. So, if Joseph does re-sign with The Buds, don't be surprised if the Wings use a Legace/Dafoe tandem (mostly Dafoe) next year, while the Bruins run with Sheilds/Graheme...Rangers? Most likely a half/half Blackburn/Richter combo, as Richter is getting older.